Balthazar sometimes feels more like a movie set than it does a real restaurant. A New York imagination of a Parisian brasserie in the heart of SoHo, but there’s something a little too polished around the edges to be truly Parisian. Balthazar is a scene. The epitome of a certain kind of New York City food scene that feels almost like a time capsule of the early 2000s, see and be seen city institution that seems to continue to thrive decades later. Time seems to stop in here, in a frenzy of activity, a timeless experience.

Perhaps the best thing about Balthazar is that it is an all day place. Where the scenes unfold at each hour, evolving as the day goes on and transitions into night. It’s simultaneously lively and grand and intimate, a constant rhythm from morning to night. The food is fine. It’s classic French fare. Lots of butter, generous portions, at a premium price point. Nothing to write home about, you can certainly find better versions of any dish somewhere else in the city, but you’re not here for the food. You’re here for the performance of the place itself. The dressed up staff, the patina-d mirrors, the tall ceilings with tin tiles. It could practically count as off Broadway theater.

Is it worth putting up with the scene? Perhaps only on your first visit to the city. But even for locals, there’s something wonderful about settling into a bistro table on an early weekday morning, before SoHo truly wakes up, with a latte that comes in a bowl the size of your face. A croissant that is just as large, and watching the city go by around you.